Category Archives: Creativity

An exception to the theory “the more support one receives, the further they can progress” is that of lessons in independent writing. But on the contrary, and quite obviously, no support is not enough.

So how can the balance be struck to ensure that pupils are able to improve upon their independent writing skills, lesson after lesson?

In introducing the Independent Writing Activity Book series by Topical Resources to pupils in year one through to year 6, it is possible for them to make maximum progress in their independent writing lessons.

As the pupils advance through the activities they will encounter a whole range of independent writing tasks with a different level of support for each, dependent on the stage to which they have progressed.

The creative activities are highly engaging at all levels with illustrations relating to the various themes throughout.

What’s more, each activity book focuses on the particular styles of writing that pupils are required to learn at each level, set out in the English programmes of study – so by the end of year 6, your pupils will be confident in writing narratives, play scripts, biographies, autobiographies, journalistic reports, arguments, formal writing and poetry, independently.

Something that many educators take away from their first few years of teaching is the difference between pupils’ learning and how to get quantifiable results – a well-performing pupil is not always a pupil who has learned, and a pupil who has learned does not always get good results.

It could be argued that learning is flexible, durable, and invisible; however the outcomes are not always immediately apparent. Whereas teaching so your pupils can get good results can be short term and somewhat inflexible, yet quantifiable.

Therefore, as Ofsted and assessments require tangible proof of learning, measured performance is all that one can offer – even though there is minimal comparison between the two.

However, it is the critical thinking that is developed through learning which will better prepare pupils for the more advanced concepts to come and which will also support them in their assessments if a curve ball is thrown in, which it often is.

It is for this reason that we have produced Brilliant Activities to Stimulate Creative Thinking – a book containing over 150 creative challenges that will provide mental stimulation for your pupils, developing their higher level thinking skills and their ability to think outside the box.

These 10-15 minute activities are ideal for PSHE lessons, and, as they require minimal preparation, they are also ideal for first thing in the morning to fire-up your class, to engage fast finishers, or for homework. There are no correct answers and any input is valued.

You will notice that the more activities that your pupils complete, the more they will subconsciously engage with their school work using this critical thinking approach, and so their overall confidence and self-esteem in lessons will improve.

What can School Dance Week do for you, and what can you do for School Dance Week?

Dance is the second most popular physical activity within primary schools, and yet curiously in the past there has never been a School Dance Week through which schools can celebrate their involvement with dance and share with each other ideas and suggestions relating to dance in schools.

So, we’ve rectified that by setting up the first ever School Dance Week. And even though this is our first step forwards on what we hope will be a long-running campaign to get dance in schools noticed, and help all dance teachers develop their work in schools, we’ve already found a fabulous group of partners who have shown their willingness to work with us. The list of partners is below.

Also we have over 100 participating schools of all sizes and types from all over the country, and we’d welcome your involvement with us too.

What we are asking you to do is to sign up with School Dance Week (it’s completely free and comes with no commitment – you just show your support for the idea.) This will give you the opportunity access free resources and opportunities from all the professional partners who have supported the very start of School Dance Week.

Now that we have got going we can say that next year’s School Dance Week will be even bigger – and we will be commemorating those schools that have chosen to support us at our very start with a Honour Board of Founder Schools. All you have to do is sign up – there is absolutely no cost and no commitment.

From here on, having established School Dance Week our work is now to establish working relationships between schools and dance professionals, creating a potential outlet for long term educational work and increasing your Arts Mark.

And if you have your own ideas as to what School Dance Week can do in the future, we’d like to hear from you. Please click here to contact us.

Here is our list of Founding Partners – to whom we are very grateful indeed.

Pineapple Community

The Movement Factory

Balletboyz

2 Faced Dance

Motionhouse

Tilted Productions

The Place

C-12 Dance Theatre

Northern School of Contemporary Dance

Dance East

West End in Schools

Youth Dance England

I really do hope that you feel there is something for you in this new initiative, and that from this beginning we can really increase an awareness in the importance and benefit of encouraging dance in schools.